Stolen Carts and Stolen Cars

Apparently I work in the 'hood. I've always pretty much known this. My knowledge of the situation began around the time that I was approached on my way out of work by someone who wanted me to buy "movies," which curiously enough seemed to come in very tiny plastic bags. My suspicions have been confirmed over the past couple of days through a series of loosely related incidents...

It all started this past week when our department set out to completely deck every hall, on every floor, for Christmas. I have a reputation for being the department Christmas enthusiast (surprise!), so I had been assigned/volunteered to decorate the trees on almost every floor. Just for the record, I have now assembled and decorated a total of seven artificial pines this season, and even disassembled one that didn't look quite right. Anyway, it was Thursday morning, and I was putting up the 6th floor tree with one of my coworkers. As it turned out, this was the the one that was a few branches short of a Christmas tree. In fact, an entire row of letter "D" branches was nowhere to be found! We decided that this just wouldn't do, so we set off down the underground garage to see if we could find another one that still in possession of all of its parts. We found one, and proceeded to set it up with little more incident. Unfortunately, the tree that was now on the 6th floor turned out to be the one that was designated for the 2nd floor, and we were now one entire tree short. Christmas decorating expert that I am (Former Roommates: Contrary to popular belief, I have actually set relatively few things on fire during the holiday season!), I was selected to go to Target to get a new one. I walked the block or two out to our somewhat shady parking lot, and noted with interest that the car next to me was running, but yet there appeared to be no one near it. I pondered going back inside the building to see if anyone had left their car on accidentally, but decided that perhaps someone was just warming it up or had to run back inside to get something. This was not the case, as you will later see....

Target was a dream come true for a decorating over-enthusiast such as myself! What could be more fun than having in my purse our company credit card and an order to buy whatever I deemed necessary for a lovely 2nd floor Christmas tree? Several calls to my boss and approximately one and a half hours later, I exited the store, my cart loaded up with a handsome 7 1/2 foot Northland pine, assorted silver and blue Christmas balls, a box of silver icicles, several packs of white snowflakes, 5 boxes of lights, a snowflake-themed tree skirt, and a silver star tree topper. I was just about to turn down the row where I had parked, when the wheels of my cart locked up and refused to go any further!! Apparently this particular Target has quite a problem with cart theft, to the point where you can't even push it to your car which is actually located well INSIDE the confines of Target's own parking lot! I stood there for a second, wondering if I should just leave the cart there and try to drive my car up before someone stole the entire contents of my cart, or whether I should attempt to carry all of the above items at one time without falling over. I opted for the latter, after considering that if Target could not trust their customers not to take their shopping carts, I certainly could not trust them not to steal $160 worth of already-paid-for seasonal merchandise. Incidentally, 7 1/2 foot Northland pines do not come in an extremely petite box. I limped slowly toward my car, refusing the offer of a helpful man who I decided I did not trust to follow me to my vehicle, and finally made it there with only some sort of pulled shoulder muscle. It was all worth it~the second floor tree is indeed a magnificent sight to behold!

Later that afternoon, I was on my way out when my coworker informed me that her car, which had been parked next to me in the parking lot, had been stolen! The car that had been running in the parking lot when I left for Target turned out to be another stolen car that the thiefs had left in place of my coworker's car. Crime ridden local Targets, crime ridden parking lots...sheesh, what's next?